mu2010

I just wonder how Ronayne is going to play in the suburbs. His career has been based in the City, and his campaign website right now talks almost solely about urban planning issues. It's music to my ears personally and I have long admired Ronayne, but I don't know how he's going to appeal to suburbanites. Obviously it's very early, and Budish is unpopular at this point so Chris certainly has a good chance by default, but playing devil's advocate,that's my concern.

I might give it a try tomorrow. Headed east for a get together.

Yeah, I could understand not wanting another Mega Complex like Gates Mills Towers or Marsol or something like that, and we can't accuse them of not having a balance between apartments and housing. We can't accuse them of not having affordable housing either. What bothers me is the blanket ban and refusal to consider any 'apartments' at all in any context when clearly the city and surrounding suburbs desperately need a downtown and apartments would be an integral part of creating one. A nice simple downtown with a few family friendly restaurants, patios, an ice cream place and a pub or two in a walkable setting would do wonders to spruce up the area's appeal to young families. Something would also need to be done about the housing stock as you mentioned. They are eventually going to need to do what South Euclid and Cleveland Heights have done and form a CDC to work on that stuff but that is probably not in their radar. FWIW, I have several early 30s friends starting families and raising kids there, but of course, they all grew up there. Some have left for other suburbs. I brought this up to one friend the other day who mocked the gas station plans and the old timers running the city, but all in all he's more concerned about his kids' Halloween costumes and sporting events. I agree with everything else you said though I wasn't aware of all the Costco history you mentioned, that is interesting. I think I was away in college at the time and not paying attention. Were the lawsuits all about zoning type stuff?

I missed this discussion but I grew up there and I really loved growing up there. And what's happening with Mayland makes me sick. It's unbelievable how oblivious they are to what's happening around them. Look at what Shaker's doing, look at what South Euclid and Lyndhurst are doing. Look what Richmond Heights is doing at the mall site. Meanwhile in Mayfield, the dinosaurs at city hall think they can bring back the glory days of the 80s by doing exactly what they did in the 80s. "We got Sheetz everyone! That will attract young families!" They are bringing their own downfall and it kills me.

https://www.cleveland.com/news/2019/01/heinens-celebrates-90-years-in-the-grocery-business-how-the-grocer-thrives-in-cleveland-and-beyond.html Heinen's should be safe, at least for now. I like Kroger, but losing Heinen's would be a horrid tragedy. Marc's is a wild card. They are privately owned by one man, Marc Glassman, who has a not-very-nice reputation and he's got to be getting up there in age. Unlike Heinen's, they have high turnover and I can't imagine employees are super-loyal to the place or anything like that. They also have a lot of stores. But they are in a different segment of the market altogether from Kroger and Heinen's and Giant Eagle and Acme. When I was a kid we barely considered it a grocery store, more like a Big Lots or a Discount Drug Mart. They sold a lot of closeouts. (I grew up near the original store which was called Bernie Shulman's before Marc bought the chain from Bernie, and it was definitely not a grocery store in those days) They used to not even have meat. But they did spend money growing their meat and produce departments the past 10 or so years.

I understand that, that's why I said "if it were up to me" and "since that isn't happening. (Though the cost aspect is bogus because you have to consider decreased road & gas usage in the analysis. But I understand you're right about the politics.) The point was just that we aren't going to get all of our urbanist fantasies here, and considering that point, the Opportunity Corridor has been a good project. Great idea. The east end of Chester ("Upper" Chester?) is going to become apartment row now. And with Circle Square/UC3 going in, with the goal of creating a neighborhood and a downtown over there, that part of Chester should be included in that.

If it were up to me, like most people here, I would ban cars from the city center, create parking maximums in the zoning code, create a commuter tax for car commuters, and create a streetcar/expanded rapid transit system all over the city. Since that isn't happening, I think the Jackson Administration did a good job with this project. They turned it from a bypass freeway to something that will and already is measurably benefiting the community. They have site control over adjacent real estate to prevent crap development. They have taken their time and done a lot of community engagement in the process. ODOT has involved many local residents in the construction. They have plans for a walkable, residential mixed use E. 79th street near *two* rapid stations. A construction academy. A huge cold storage facility. A bike path along the whole thing. I don't know what more we could ask for honestly. The time for complaining that the road should never have been built passed long ago. I have my issues with Jackson but kudos to how they handled this thing.

I only know about it from lurking on UO Cincy posts. I remember reading on here about how awful he was (and I assume continues to be) with the streetcar. But he probably wouldn't be a terrible choice for gubernatorial nominee in Ohio tbh. Strictly speaking from a "chances to win" perspective.

Dave's is a Cleveland chain that has a a growing amount of stores in the suburbs but for the most part serves the City of Cleveland in neighborhoods where the big chains don't want to go. The original store was just east of downtown and was something like 80 years old. They moved out a couple years ago and built a brand new, shiny flagship store near Euclid Ave & E. 55th, with the help of some city and federal subsidy. Their reputation is of a lower price and quality though I'd say they've upped their game a little bit in recent years. They also acquired two high-end stores under the Lucky's name - one on the west side of Cleveland and the other in Clintonville, Columbus - and they recently opened a third Lucky's in Lake County.

Being a native Clevelander who spent ten years combined in the Columbus and Cincinnati areas, I miss having Kroger as an option for certain things. It was nice in Columbus having Kroger and Giant Eagle competing. Kroger has far superior deli meat to Giant Eagle. Though Giant Eagle has a much better salad bar and olive bar than Kroger. So I'd end up having to go to both. In Cincinnati, Kroger is too dominant though, there's not enough competition and choice. Cleveland has it pretty good right now with Giant Eagle, Heinen's, and Dave's. I don't expect the Heinens or the Saltzmans (Dave's) to ever sell so we'll see. I don't know anything about the ownership of the Akron chains you mentioned.

I see your point. Buffalo's mayoral race was basically another rematch of the 2016 Democratic primary, whereas here Bibb won the leftists and even the endorsement of Our Revolution, but also had a bigger tent coalition than just the leftists... Hence his victory. I think he's got extremely savvy political instincts to be able to thread that needle. The Obama comparisons are again appropriate here. He is clearly progressive but the national media labeling him as Progressive™ could lead to some people drawing inaccurate conclusions. Doesn't really matter much in the grand scheme of things, but the national media is terrible.

Bibb got a higher percentage of the vote than Lyndon Johnson in 1964, the all-time highest vote share in presidential history. (61.1%)

Yeah, they're awful.

I don't know if you detected some sort of anti-Bibb message in what I said, but I'm very pro-Bibb and I think the whole "uppity part of town" dynamic is really unfortunate... I was just pointing out that the dynamic does in fact exist.

It's a sad but a true part of Cleveland politics. You know one reason Frank Jackson has neglected the West Side Market is really for the same considerations. He's afraid of the optics of having food deserts all over town while he's pouring $ into a market in the "uppity" part of town. (Even though many people of all stripes use the WSM)

Love it totally agree that it's a great name for the road, but at a minimum that should be a historical plaque on that corner. I don't believe there's anything commemorating that right now.

Yeah, it's definitely something that could pass even with Ohio's R tilt, and even the presence of a group collecting more signatures to keep making this a public issue could continue putting pressure on the Ohio Republican Party that this problem is not going away.

Thinking about this, I hope the people behind the previous ballot issue get a new, more punitive/aggressive one on the ballot. It will get the signatures and will likely pass. Say it's 4 republicans & 4 democrats on the commission. The map needs to pass with unanimous consent or they lose their jobs. Like, not just the job on the commission, but their entire job.

I grew up with him on the radio talking about the tribe in the 90s. Though my parents have tuned him out the past decade as he's gotten worse. He's from my part of town and we share an ethnicity so I understand where he comes from. Unfortunately he fell into Trumpism and anger like many of his age and background. RIP, but I won't miss his radio show.

I'd that is the east side of the building, I wonder why they wouldn't have it connect directly with the buildings right next to it that house similar disciplines? I don't like the design either, they should stick to the classic windows / design, that's just the way Miami's campus is set up and that's what works. That building looks more like the Goggin or the Rec than an academic building. Also I'm concerned that they cut down too many trees when they do these new buildings. One good thing I can say about this is I think the location is good. I've thought for a while that Miami's campus is experiencing sprawl and that academic buildings in particular should be close to the center, not on the outskirts like some of the stuff they've done recently. That whole area has to look way different now that Withrow's also gone, haven't been down there in years.

Just did some more research. It was actually the crooks in the State Legislature, in their neverending war on big cities and the people who live in them, who passed a law banning residence requirements in public contracts. The law was held up in litigation for several years, and the city argued that it fell under "home rule" which is part of the Ohio Constitution. The Ohio Supreme Court sided with the state. https://www.legislature.ohio.gov/legislation/legislation-summary?id=GA131-HB-180 https://www.cleveland.com/open/2019/09/ohio-supreme-court-overturns-clevelands-fannie-lewis-law-siding-with-state-legislature.html https://www.jdsupra.com/legalnews/ohio-supreme-court-crushes-fannie-lewis-74877/

For any city contract or any private contract getting city subsidy, you have to do a certain percentage of either minority-owned, woman-owned, or Cleveland-owned businesses. Additionally there used to be a further requirement that at least 20% of employees were Cleveland residents but the Ohio Supreme Court struck it down. Edit - and i should note that even though it's federal money, the city law department will attach the provisions to all of the contracts, unless not allowed under the federal law. (Which I don't believe there is any conflict.)

Those yellow NY plates are actually "throwbacks" in a sense. NY plates were yellow like that back in the mid-20th century, and from what I understand were kind of iconic at that time in NY. The modern version was a nod to those classics.

I'm still driving around with that one, haha. It was Strickland & his wife's pick, then Kasich nixed it. Apparently DeWine's tastes are more in line with Strickland's. The best Ohio plates were when I was a kid in the 90s - white and blue with the cursive "The Heart of It All!"

One interesting thing I noticed when living in Columbus is that people have no idea where they live. School District can be different than City/Township which can be different from a third designation we haven't mentioned yet - mailing address. Confusion is much more rare in Cuyahoga County where the dividing lines for all three typically are the same. But in Columbus you have people who have no literally have no idea what jurisdiction they fall into. The realtors say things like this house has "Columbus taxes, Gahanna schools" etc. I also knew a Cincy westside guy in college, Elder grad. He was from Delhi Township and he swore he was from Cincinnati because of the mailing address. I tried to explain to him that he wasn't actually from Cincinnati, he was from a suburb, but he didn't want to hear it.